Canberra Raiders look to strengthen England ties
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 11:35 am
Ricky Stuart's amassing a Barmy Army in Canberra and the Raiders want to make their ties to the Old Dart even stronger.
They're in early talks with Wigan about playing a pre-season trial against the English Super League club ahead of the 2020 NRL season.
The Raiders are considering taking their recruitment of English players to the next level, having already signed about a third of the national team.
Now Raiders CEO Don Furner said they could look to the future and bring the next generation of English stars to Canberra as well.
"Names keep coming up and we keep looking," he said.
"We're looking at some of the younger guys too. I've spoken to a couple of clubs about going to that next level down and looking at some younger guys and giving them an opportunity at 20s.
"It might be a faster development pathway for them and they go back and play at their club. So we're looking at that as well."
Are Wigan fans concerned about this. The Canberra club are sugar coating this news as a reciprocal arrangement between themselves and Wigan, when in fact they are manipulating the Warriors into a position of being merely Canberra's feeder club.
Wigan have always had the best conveyor belt of young, homegrown talent in English Rugby League, which Canberra want to now steer in the direction of the Australian capital city. Very sinister indeed.
They're in early talks with Wigan about playing a pre-season trial against the English Super League club ahead of the 2020 NRL season.
The Raiders are considering taking their recruitment of English players to the next level, having already signed about a third of the national team.
Now Raiders CEO Don Furner said they could look to the future and bring the next generation of English stars to Canberra as well.
"Names keep coming up and we keep looking," he said.
"We're looking at some of the younger guys too. I've spoken to a couple of clubs about going to that next level down and looking at some younger guys and giving them an opportunity at 20s.
"It might be a faster development pathway for them and they go back and play at their club. So we're looking at that as well."
Are Wigan fans concerned about this. The Canberra club are sugar coating this news as a reciprocal arrangement between themselves and Wigan, when in fact they are manipulating the Warriors into a position of being merely Canberra's feeder club.
Wigan have always had the best conveyor belt of young, homegrown talent in English Rugby League, which Canberra want to now steer in the direction of the Australian capital city. Very sinister indeed.